I can promise you that this has happened on the Guadalupe River near New Braunfels. I don't know which campground, but my neighbor in San Antonio did this annually when his partner dragged him camping with his family. It probably wasn't that noisy, though... it was a newish unit bought for the purpose.

one specific instance was last year at myrtle beach campground altho i have seen it at other S.P.'s.

Looks like something I've missed. I'd love to take a photo of something that strange.

When we tent camped, we avoided most anything "civilized", so it is hard for me to have ever thought of bringing an A/C for a tent. Sometimes the Airstream feels decadent. Don't worry—just an attack of Calvinism—I'll get over it.

Skater, thanks for answering the question as best as you can now. Sounds like the injectors had been ready for servicing for a while and that (mysteriously?) affected shifting. Let us know how it works out when you get a chance to test it in really cold weather—I think it is coming back to the East.

Yesterday morning, we fired it up and left the driveway fairly quickly, and it shifted right into second. Ambient air was in the 50s, but it had been in the 30s overnight so it's likely the engine and transmission were still cold. Good sign.

Both times we started it yesterday, we noticed how quiet and smoothly it ran when cold compared to before, so that's a good sign too. It's nowhere near as obnoxious as it was.

Quote:

I still think you do not need to warm up any engine for even a few minutes any more. Additionally, it wastes fuel and does pollute the area. But it is unlikely either Ken or I will ever be camped next to you since we live 2,000 miles apart.

I suspect, even if you were next to me, you wouldn't notice it. Most people, I've noticed, consistently underestimate the time they spend doing things - commute time is a big one around here, for example - ask anyone how long their commute is and they'll tell you half an hour, but drive it yourself a couple times and you'll find it's probably consistently 35 to 45 minutes. I bet I'm just the only one being honest about how long my engine runs before I take off. And, honestly, I probably wouldn't be running a gasser any less - the difference is a gas engine is quieter, of course.

And, I think the biggest complaints are about people running them for half an hour or more. I've never seen that happen, to be honest, but I can see being annoyed by it. It's not something I do. I have let mine idle a few minutes while hooking up - it's quite hard on any battery to fire it up then shut it down right away. And in fact one of the issues I was having was due to a bad battery that was about two years old.

One other thing, how much winter camping do you even do? We do it every year, one or two trips. I'm not talking about fall "cool weather" camping, I'm talking about guaranteed freezing weather and snow being a very real possibility while you're out there. This winter was the first time in several years that I only had to winterize the camper twice. The idling we're discussing is only during those trips - the rest of the year, it's basically get in and go.

Also, whatever happened to "Can't we just get along?" We're in a society here, people are going to annoy each other from time to time...